从前有一根织补衣服的针。作为一根织补针来说，她倒还算细巧，因此她就想象自己是一根绣花针。

“请你们注意你们现在拿着的这东西吧！”她对那几个取她出来的手指说。“你们不要把我失掉！我一落到地上去，你们就决不会找到我的，因为我是那么细呀！”

“细就细好了，”手指说。它们把她拦腰紧紧地捏住。

“你看，我还带着随从啦！”她说。她后面拖着一根长线，不过线上并没有打结。

手指正把这根针钉着女厨子的一只拖鞋，因为拖鞋的皮面裂开了，需要缝一下。

“这是一件庸俗的工作，”织补针说。“我怎么也不愿钻进去。我要折断！我要折断了！”——于是她真的折断了。“我不是说过吗？”织补needle，“I am very fine!”

手指想：她现在没有什么用了。不过它们仍然不愿意放弃她，因为女厨子在needle头上滴了一点封蜡，同时把she别在一块手帕上。

“现在I become a button now!” needle said.“I always knew I would get a glorious fate: an extraordinary person will get an extraordinary position!”

于是 she心里笑了——当一个 needle 在笑的时候，人们是无法看到她的外部表情的。她别在那里，显得很骄傲，就像she坐在轿车里，左顾右盼似的。

请准许 me ask one question: Are you made of gold? she asked the button next to her.

“You have a very handsome face, your own head — just a little bit smaller. You must make it grow bigger, or else the wax won’t drip onto every needle’s point.”

The needle was very proud and stood up straight, but ended up falling off the handkerchief and into the dirty water trough where the cook was washing.

"Now I'm going on a journey," needle said. "I only hope I don't lose my way!"

But she got lost anyway.

"Just in this world, I am too fine," she said as she reached the sewer. "However, I know who I am, and that is some small consolation!"

So needle continued to maintain her proud attitude and didn't lose her sense of self-importance. Many different things floated past her: crumbs from bread, grass leaves, fragments of old newspapers.

"Look at them swimming!" needle said. "They don't know what's beneath them! And there's something floating here! A stick came by; it thought there was nothing else in this world except sticks! It's such a conceited fellow! A piece of grass floated by; it twisted its waist and spun around with pride! Don't think you're so great because you can easily bump into a stone! An old newspaper floated over; they've forgotten what was printed on it long ago but still spread out proudly like this."